Iran Snap Analysis: A Regime Still Worried About the Green Movement? (Yes.)

Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, the head of the Principlist faction in Parliament and a relative by marriage of the Supreme Leader, has tipped off the concerns of the leadership over sanctions and --- despite the supposed victory over protest after the disputed 2009 Presidential election --- opposition inside Iran.

Haddad Adel warned, with a reference to sanctions, “The enemy wants to destroy the experience of religious government or make it unsuccessful. The enemies have reached this conclusion that they will be an obstacle for the revolution through economic pressure.”

The former Speaker of Parliament unsurprisingly expressed defiance against the threat: "Of course it is clear that in the world on one side is arrogance and on the other pure Islam. On one side there is money and weapons and lies and on the other side, faith and spirituality and martyrdom.”

However, Haddad Adel then showed he was worried: “The impressive participation of 85% of the people in the 2009 election was a subject of pride for us, but unfortunately some embittered the sweetness of the election the day after and labelled the regime [guilty] of fraud....The damage by the seditionists was no less than the damage Saddam did in the 8-year war [between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s.”

Haddad Adel warned, “The enemy is trying to ensure that a group will win the election that will compromise with America and stand opposed to the Leader.”

Beyond the reformists and the Green Movement, Haddad Adel also swiped at the "deviant current" in President Ahmadinejad’s inner circle, including possible Presidential candidate Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, £Of course the seditionists and deviationist have different languages, but in action and path their movement is one and the same.”